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Full resumption of negotiations (under the Doha work programme) in all negotiating groups was announced Wednesday (31 January) at an informal heads-of-delegation meeting at the WTO by Mr. Pascal Lamy, Director-General and chair of its Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC).

Globalization, not global warming, is the bigger threat to the country

Coming from the mini-ministerial meeting at Davos, the US Trade Representative, Ms. Susan Schwab, told reporters at a media briefing that there was palpable optimism and a sense of urgency to have a breakthrough in the negotiations.

Consistent with the game being played by developed countries, the US has begun the process of shifting its subsidies under Amber and Blue boxes to Green box through its 2007 Farm Bill proposals.

World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy yesterday called on members to resume the suspended Doha Development Agenda trade negotiations fully across the whole spectrum by combining both the multilateral process as well as discreet and bilateral meetings among key players.

The chair of the Doha Development Agenda negotiations on nonagricultural market access Don Stephenson has created what he calls a NAMA caucus of some two dozen key World Trade Organization members to accelerate work on all core issues.

Enough with the grandstanding: let's get down to the numbers. That was the attitude struck by trade ministers who last weekend pulled the so-called 'Doha round' of trade talks out of semi-retirement for one last shot at the world title.

Trade chiefs from the European Union, Brazil and the United States met yesterday in an effort to convince other World Trade Organization members of the benefits of an emerging understanding on how to approach a final Doha Development Agenda package.

The free trade agreement that Thailand has been negotiating with the United States will violate the human rights of Thai people and affect the country's sovereignty; thus negotiations should not resume until a thorough review of its impact is undertaken.

The Chair of the WTO Negotiating Group on Market Access for Non-agricultural Products (NAMA), in his first open-ended consultations of the new year, encouraged members to work harder on  the issues of Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) and ‘sectorals’.